Color Wheel
How to Produce a Color Scheme with Color Scheme Designer
Color Scheme Designer is a free online application for producing color schemes. This can be a very easy way to quickly experiment with different color combinations and possibly produce color schemes that you'd not usually consider. Once you've settled on a color scheme, you can export the color values in several ways, including ACO and GPL palette formats for import into Adobe Photoshop and GIMP, respectively.
The Color Scheme Designer interface is very intuitive, but the following steps will offer you a quick introduction to getting the most from this powerful free tool.
Color Models
The different color models are the most prominently placed features within the interface of Color Scheme Designer. These affect the number of colors that will be used in the final palette and also how the colors interact.
The six different models are Mono, Complement, Triad, Tetrad, Analogic and Accented Analogic. If you're up to speed with your color theory, these may be self-explanatory, but if you go to the Help menu and click Show Tooltips, you'll see an explanation of each color model as you mouse over it.
You can see this in the image and, when turned on, every aspect of the user interface will display an explanation of its purpose.
Color Wheel
The color wheel is where most of the work is done to produce a color palette. The number of controls in the color wheel will depend on which color model that you are using, but the way they operate is common to all models.
Each model has a Primary color control that is a darker circle that can be dragged around the wheel to select a different primary color. The Complement, Tetrad and Accented Analogic models include a complementary color control directly opposite.
When either of these controls is dragged, the other also moves. All but the Mono and Complement models include two controls for secondary colors. These can be adjusted independently of the primary color, within set limits, though they cannot be moved independently of each other.
Adjust Scheme
Color Scheme Designer offers several options for fine tuning color palettes generated by the color wheel.
Below the color wheel are three buttons. Hue is selected by default and displays the color wheel. If you click Adjust Scheme, a new set of controls are displayed. The quickest way to make changes is to click the Preset drop down menu and select a set option. You can see the effect in the preview to the right.
You can also make manual adjustments by moving the circular grab handles in the Saturation/Brightness and Contrast boxes. By default your adjustments affect the whole palette, but if you click Adjust Variants, you can edit colors individually.
The Preview shows real time changes to your color scheme as you make adjustments. There are, however, another couple of features that you could overlook.
Firstly there is the Show Sample Text link that overlays text in black, white and gray over each color. This will be particularly useful to web designers for seeing how different color options may affect legibility. You will also see Light page example and Dark page example buttons below the preview and these will overlay a simple page design in the window with the color palette applied to it.
Clicking on the overlay will switch to a slightly different preview option. This is limited in its options, but can be a useful way to see see how a color scheme might work together in a design.
There are more options available in the menu, though the main aspects of the tool have been covered in the previous pages.
The Random menu option is ideal if you're feeling lazy and want to generate schemes automatically. The Colorblind menu can be used to show how a scheme will appear to users who have one of several different forms of colorblindness. The Color space menu defaults to RGB which will suit most users, but there are options available.
Finally the Export menu allows you to save your color scheme for later use. There are several options, but the text option offers flexibility if you don't want to save an ACO or GPL palette for Adobe Photoshop or GIMP.
Color Scheme Designer is a free online application for producing color schemes. This can be a very easy way to quickly experiment with different color combinations and possibly produce color schemes that you'd not usually consider. Once you've settled on a color scheme, you can export the color values in several ways, including ACO and GPL palette formats for import into Adobe Photoshop and GIMP, respectively.
The Color Scheme Designer interface is very intuitive, but the following steps will offer you a quick introduction to getting the most from this powerful free tool.
Color Models
The different color models are the most prominently placed features within the interface of Color Scheme Designer. These affect the number of colors that will be used in the final palette and also how the colors interact.
The six different models are Mono, Complement, Triad, Tetrad, Analogic and Accented Analogic. If you're up to speed with your color theory, these may be self-explanatory, but if you go to the Help menu and click Show Tooltips, you'll see an explanation of each color model as you mouse over it.
You can see this in the image and, when turned on, every aspect of the user interface will display an explanation of its purpose.
Color Wheel
The color wheel is where most of the work is done to produce a color palette. The number of controls in the color wheel will depend on which color model that you are using, but the way they operate is common to all models.
Each model has a Primary color control that is a darker circle that can be dragged around the wheel to select a different primary color. The Complement, Tetrad and Accented Analogic models include a complementary color control directly opposite.
When either of these controls is dragged, the other also moves. All but the Mono and Complement models include two controls for secondary colors. These can be adjusted independently of the primary color, within set limits, though they cannot be moved independently of each other.
Adjust Scheme
Color Scheme Designer offers several options for fine tuning color palettes generated by the color wheel.
Below the color wheel are three buttons. Hue is selected by default and displays the color wheel. If you click Adjust Scheme, a new set of controls are displayed. The quickest way to make changes is to click the Preset drop down menu and select a set option. You can see the effect in the preview to the right.
You can also make manual adjustments by moving the circular grab handles in the Saturation/Brightness and Contrast boxes. By default your adjustments affect the whole palette, but if you click Adjust Variants, you can edit colors individually.
The Preview shows real time changes to your color scheme as you make adjustments. There are, however, another couple of features that you could overlook.
Firstly there is the Show Sample Text link that overlays text in black, white and gray over each color. This will be particularly useful to web designers for seeing how different color options may affect legibility. You will also see Light page example and Dark page example buttons below the preview and these will overlay a simple page design in the window with the color palette applied to it.
Clicking on the overlay will switch to a slightly different preview option. This is limited in its options, but can be a useful way to see see how a color scheme might work together in a design.
There are more options available in the menu, though the main aspects of the tool have been covered in the previous pages.
The Random menu option is ideal if you're feeling lazy and want to generate schemes automatically. The Colorblind menu can be used to show how a scheme will appear to users who have one of several different forms of colorblindness. The Color space menu defaults to RGB which will suit most users, but there are options available.
Finally the Export menu allows you to save your color scheme for later use. There are several options, but the text option offers flexibility if you don't want to save an ACO or GPL palette for Adobe Photoshop or GIMP.